Perumka acts to deter scalpers

JAKARTA (JP): In a bid to deter ticket scalpers from extorting money from Idul Fitri travelers, the state-owned railway company Perumka has set a new rule on buying train tickets from automatic machines.

The head of Perumka operations in Jakarta, Cikampek and Merak, Eddy Sasongko, said recently people who want to buy tickets from the computerized automatic machines can now only get four tickets a day.

He said the policy was made after Perumka staff suspected scalpers had been exploiting machines to get as many tickets as possible.

"They sold the tickets to travelers at higher prices," Eddy said.

The computerized automatic machines, installed last April, enable commuters to buy tickets by inserting pre-paid cards of at least Rp 100,000 (US$42).

So far there are only three machines, in Bandung, Jakarta and Surabaya.

Late last year Perumka staff became suspicious of hawkers' when they checked ticket sales.

Barosa, the ticket reservation supervisor at Gambir station, said the practices were detected in Bandung.

The results showed several people had bought many tickets -- "one person even bought 20 tickets," Barosa said.

Their identities are known to Perumka staff because people wanting the pre-paid cards must show their identification cards when they buy them.

However Eddy said the company had no intention of reporting the matter to the police, as hawkers are difficult to eliminate.

"The only thing we can do is to limit their activities," he added.

"We hope the new rule will deter scalpers especially in the Idul Fitri season when the number of hawkers increases," Eddy said during an inspection at Senen station.

The machines used to produce as many tickets as requested, but three weeks ago they were set to only issue four tickets per card per day.

A benefit of purchasing tickets through the machines is that customers do not have to pay the Rp 1,500 reservation fee.

So far, Barosa said, the machine has been used by around 1,000 customers. More than half of them were Bandung-based commuters, Barosa said.

The service was launched last April 21 to coincide with Kartini Day, a national commemoration of the heroine Kartini. Barosa said it was because the machine's designer was a woman electronic engineer called Mariati at Perumka's planning and development office in Bandung. (07)